Thursday, September 15, 2011

Looking for a large grassy hill to run up and down? Horner Park has got you covered! The park is located in the Irving Park neighborhood at the intersection of Montrose and California. Have I mentioned that it is absolutely HUGE!? Just under 55 acres of lush grass (complete with hill), tons of baseball diamonds, tennis courts, basketball hoops, a field house and a soccer/football field. There is also a lovely little garden next to the field house with huge rocks to sit on and enjoy.

The playground is very large and spread out. Although it is filled with wood chips, which are not my favorite, they are spread on the thin side so it is still easy to walk and/or run across them, even for my little guy. We went on a Tuesday afternoon around 2:00 p.m. The playground was pretty vacant and there were a few sunbathers on the grassy hill.

The equipment was typical of a renovated playground. There were tons of slides, bridges, and climbing structures. The playground has two areas: one for younger toddlers and the other for older kids. There are a great amount of swings, both big and little! If you leave the playground and explore the rest of the park, you will find that you almost feel like you aren't in Chicago anymore, which let's admit it, can be pretty nice sometimes :)

Another bonus is that the Chicago River runs just east of the the park, my little ones love going to the bridge and watching the river passing by. If you continue south on one of the side-walked trails, Horner Park connects with California Park (more popularly known as McFetridge Sports Center) just across Irving Park Road where I hear there is ice skating in the winter, yay!

Love: So much grass you feel like you are not in the city, a big parking lot, bathrooms, drinking fountains, relaxing garden, hilly terrain, lots of swings (including one tire), well spread out.

Hate: The wood chips - but that's it!!

Special feature: For us the best part was the large hill. We seriously took turns running up and down, rolling down and relaxing in the grass.

*October 15th from 10 a.m. until
2 p.m. the park will be filled with a pumpkin patch! Families can pick their own pumpkin for a very small fee!

*For additional photos of Horner Park please "like" Urban Green Space on Facebook located at the bottom of this blog!!